Yes, Really
by Bittersweet Mika
Summary: Rodney's not good with kids. Unfortunately, Uncle is another word babysitter. Written for SGA Flashfic. One-shot


**Title:** "Yes,really."

**Rating:** PG

**Spoilers:** Sight for Miller's Crossing

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. Please don't sue the poor single mother.

**Summary:** Rodney's not good with kids. Unfortunately, Uncle is another word babysitter.

**Author's Notes:** Closes eyes, takes deep breath and dives into new fandom. Here's hoping that it doesn't suck. Two year absence from fiction means I have no beta-reader so it's not perfect. Taste the Rainbow.

* * *

Rodney was on the phone when it happened. While trying in impress the _vital importance_ of the new computer components on the supply sergeant at the mountain he heard a loud clatter and Jeannie scream.

"OH MY GOD"

By Madison's shrieking of "DADDY!" He was running out the front door with his phone still in his hand to see what the disaster was.

Kaleb was lying at the foot of a tall metal ladder on his back and in pain. When Rodney got closer he could see the badly broken arm that Kaleb was trying to cradle to his chest despite the fact that one of the bones in the forearm was poking out of the skin below the elbow.

Swallowing down a twinge of nausea (after all he'd seen much worse) and some panic (this was nothing compared to panic off world) Rodney snapped his phone shut and knelt down next to Kaleb and placed his hands on his brother in law's shoulders, "Stop moving."

Rocking back on his heels he turned his head towards his sister, "Take Madison in the house and call for an ambulance."

"When did you get so calm in a crisis?" Jeannie asked.

Rodney rolled his eyes and snapped, "Are you forgetting what I do for a living?"

"Is he okay?" She asked, shielding her daughter's eyes from her husband's injury.

"Not a doctor, but something tells me the faster he gets professional help the better. He'll probably need surgery," Rodney said and motioned Jeannie towards the house and repeated, "Phone, ambulance."

"Right," Jeannie said and picked up Madison before hurrying off and through the front door.

It didn't take to long for the ambulance to show up and the medics to pack Kaleb onto a stretcher and into the back of the vehicle. And before he knew what was happening Jeannie was franticly outlining Madison's evening routine to Rodney and saying that she'd call as soon as she could.

"Wait a minute. What?" Rodney was confused.

"You'll have to watch Madison ," Jeannie said as if her brother was slow while looking over her shoulder to check up on her husband, clearly distracted.

Now Rodney felt a considerable more amount of panic, "You want _me_ to babysit?"

"Not really a whole lot of options right now Mer!"

"What am I supposed to do with her?"

"You're a genius, figure it out! I'll call later." And with that Jeannie climbed into the back of the ambulance swinging the doors shut behind her . The oversized van pulled away from the driveway and started down the residential street towards the nearest hospital.

Rodney made his way back inside and found his niece sitting on the sofa wide eyed and looking lost.

Rodney knew how she felt.

"So….." Rodney figured that one of them was going to have to say something and after all, he was the adult.

"Is daddy going to be okay?" Madison asked.

"Yes, of course," Rodney said.

"You sure? You're not a doctor," Madison replied.

Rodney was surprised at the question, wondering how a five year old could be so observant . Then he remembered that while her father might only be an English teacher, Jeannie was almost as smart as he was and it looked as if some of those brains had made it down the genetic line and into her daughter.

"I'm sure," he stated doing his best to sound authoritative and hoping he pulled it off.

"Really?"

"Yes. Really."

"When will he be home?"

"That I don't know. We'll just have to wait for you're mother to call us. Until then I'm sure that everything will be fine," Rodney was doing his best to beat down the slightly panicky feeling that was slowing rising in his stomach. He wasn't good with children. And he'd never been left alone with Madison.

_'I haven't even spent that much time with her.' _He thought. His contact with Madison had been limited to a few hours before he had taken Jeannie up to the Daedalus and the few hours they had been back from their kidnapping.

"Is there something you want to do?" He asked.

"I have a game," She said.

"That's something then."

An hour later Rodney was seriously questioning his intelligence. He was a genius, had saved the day countless times with his smarts and was the leading authority in sciences that made science fiction look like fact.

And was currently getting his ass handed to him in Candy Land.

For the third time.

"I win again Uncle Mer," Madison was smiling at Rodney.

Rodney refused to feel insulted over the fact that he couldn't win a board game for children and decided to chalk it up to a run of extremely bad luck.

"I don't suppose Jeannie has taught you how to play 'Prime, Not Prime'?"

Okay, he was a little insulted.

"Uncle Mer, I'm hungry," Madison's voice had the beginnings of a whine to it.

Rodney looked at his watch and saw that it was creeping up on dinner time. Surprised that he wasn't feeling more hungry himself he stretched out his back (sitting on the carpet with a five year old wasn't doing his spinal column any favors) and said, "I suppose we can find something for dinner."

But when he began to rummage around in the kitchen cupboards he discovered that there was nothing to eat.

_'Nothing that I'd consider food anyway,' _Rodney thought as he looked in the refrigerator for something that didn't look like a mold experiment gone wrong.

"My stomach is growling," Madison's voice has a much higher pitch to it than it did five minutes prior.

"Yes well, seeing as neither of us are rabbits, I'm having difficultly finding something that I would have the first idea of how to prepare."

"I'm hungry."

"So am I," he pushed aside a plastic container that held something made of tofu that had _sprouts_ and shuddered a little before pulling his head out of the appliance and turning around to face his niece.

"I'm going to order pizza, what do you like?" He asked.

"Daddy says I'm not supposed to have junk food," Madison said.

"Well, daddy's not here is he?" Rodney snapped.

Which was the wrong thing to do as Madison's lower lip began to tremble and her eyes started to tear up.

"No, no. Don't to that," Rodney panicked.

A small sob broke free.

"Everything will be fine," Rodney said quickly, trying to stop the real crying before it started.

"You're mean."

Rodney bit back his immediate response of 'Yes I am' and remembered that he was related to the little girl in front of him and actually cared about her. Besides the fact that Jeannie would kill him if she got a bad report from her daughter about Rodney.

"I'm sorry, I just get cranky when I'm hungry," he bent down to Madison's level, "Your daddy is going to be fine. I've seen people hurt worse and they're all perfectly fine."

"Really?"

"Yes, I promise."

"Really?"

"Yes. Really. Now do you still want something to eat?"

"Is it okay if we get pizza?"

"Yes, I'm sure that Jeannie and your dad would understand a little junk food considering it's been a rough day. Now what do you want on yours?"

"Mushrooms and broccoli."

"You're an unnatural child, you know that?"

Madison just gave him a wide smile.

Madison was on her second slice of pizza (Rodney his fourth) when Jeannie finally called.

"How is everything?" She asked.

"Everything is fine," Rodney answered.

"Really?"

_'What is with those two and that word?' _ Rodney thought.

"Yes, really. The world still turns, the house still stands and Madison is fine." He said "How is Kaleb?"

"They said for a compound fracture the break was fairly clean. But there was some kind of back up in the surgeries. He's just now going in for the operation where they'll reset the arm and repair the muscle and whatever else there is to do," Jeannie said sounding tired.

"I want to talk to mommy!" Madison had gotten down off her chair when she heard Rodney ask about Kaleb and wandered over to where Rodney was talking on the house line.

"Madison wants to talk to you," Rodney dutifully told his sister.

"Well then put her on."

He handed the phone to Madison and went to clear the plates while she talked to her mother. When he was finished Madison was still chattering and he was about to pull his SGC issued mobile phone out to try and connect to the mountain when a small voice called out, "Uncle Mer, mommy wants to talk to you!"

Sighing, he put the mobile back into his pocket and walked back to Madison and took the phone from her.

"Yes?" He said into the phone.

"So I hear you suck at Candy Land," was Jeannie's greeting. But before he could respond, she continued, "But other than that she seems to be doing fine. Said you've been playing with her and ordered pizza for dinner."

"Yes, well, she is my niece," Rodney sniffed sounding vaguely insulted, "Did you think I would lock her in her room and slip Power Bars under the door?"

"Something similar had crossed my mind," Jeannie said.

"Your faith in me is staggering. Hello! Responsible for the well being of an entire city. Been a key figure on several important missions. Saved the day more than once-"

"Not known for his affinity with children," Jeannie interrupted him.

"I-" he tried.

"Anyway, it sounds like you have everything under control. Madison sounds like she's having fun. That's good you know. Try and keep her mind off the fact that her father is in the hospital. Maybe you could let her beat you at Chutes and Ladders?"

Rodney wished he could send his glare over the phone line, "I'm sure that I'll be able to keep her occupied. She seems to be somewhat bright for a kid."

"Coming from you that's high praise indeed. I've got to go and get something to eat myself. I want to be in recovery when they bring Kaleb out," Jeannie said.

"We'll be fine," Rodney said, "Keep us updated."

"I will. Bye."

"Goodbye" Rodney said.

"You're not good at this game," Madison said.

"I guess not," Rodney said only half paying attention to their current game of Memory and half trying to type a text message on his mobile phone.

"I'm winning again," she said.

"How stupid can you be?!" Rodney said loudly while looking at the response text that had just popped up on the phone's screen. Not being able to be there in person or it least yell at them over the mobile was not a productive way of trying to get things done.

When he glanced up from the upsetting message he could see Madison looking hurt with her lower lip pouting out.

"Oh, no. Don't do that, I didn't mean you. I meant the person who sent me this message," Rodney said hurriedly and waved the cell phone at the little girl, "You're not stupid. In fact you're quite smart."

"Really?" Madison asked looking less upset than she did only seconds ago.

"Yes, really," Rodney affirmed.

"You wanna play again?"

Rodney surreptitiously looked at the clock on the phone as he stuffed it back into his pocket, determined to wait and deal with everyone's ineptitude when he could shout at them using his voice and not a texting apparatus.

"It's getting a little late, how about a movie or something quiet?" He asked wondering how fast he could get her to fall asleep so he could get some work done.

"Can I pick?" Madison asked.

He ignored the buzzing against his leg that signaled the arrival of another message from the SGC and silently vowed to make several annoying supply personal and a few inept scientists very sorry when he finally got a hold of them, "Yes, what ever you feel like."

"Really?"

"Yes, really," he hoped that accommodating her would help settle her down and make her sleepy, "But first, why don't you get ready for bed?"

"Are you going to help me take a bath?" Madison asked.

Rodney paled at the thought of bathtime assistance and hastily said, "I think we can skip that for one night."

"Really?" She looked excited at the prospect of skipping her bath.

"Yes, really."

"Okay, I can get ready faster without a bath," she said.

"How useful, why don't you run along then and change and then we'll watch your movie."

"Okay," Madison sing-song and stood up and headed for the stairs.

Once she was out of sight Rodney pulled his continually buzzing phone out of his pocket and flipped it open angrily, "What part of family emergency and unavailable do you people not understand?" He snapped into the phone, figuring that he had a good ten minutes to chew out some unlucky people before Madison came back downstairs.

By the time Rodney had finished expressing his displeasure to a few people and finished putting away the Memory cards Madison had reappeared in the room wearing mismatched pajamas with a toothpaste stain on one sleeve and slightly messy hair.

He did his best to remind himself that the scene before him should reinforce the idea that children were more trouble than they looked instead of finding Madison very adorable.

It didn't work.

"So, what are we going to watch?" He asked steeling himself for something involving princesses, fairies, unicorns or even all three.

"Avatar!" Madison exclaimed and scurried over to a low shelf where there was an impressive array of child friendly DVD's and pulled out a thicker box. It looked more like a box set than a single movie and had Rodney wondering just what he had gotten himself into.

"Sit down Uncle Mer, I can do it myself," she said and moved over to the entertainment center and proceeded to turn on all the correct devices and load a disc into the player.

Rodney tucked himself into one corner of the sofa and watched as the menu for some kind of children's animated show appeared on the television screen.

"Avatar The Last Airbender" Rodney read aloud from the screen and took in the picture of a group of cartoon children including a young bald boy whose ears could give Sheppard a run for his money.

"It's my favorite show Uncle Mer," Madison said and grabbed a remote from the coffee table and began to navigate through the on screen menus to a certain episode. She hit play and climbed onto the sofa and to Rodney's shock proceeded to tuck herself in to Rodney's side.

Trying to overcome the shock of Madison curling up with him and wondering what he done to deserve it (actually, for once wondering what he'd done right) he asked, "What is this about ?"

"Shhhhh!" Madison held her finger in front of her lips and turned the volume up on the TV.

Rodney took the hint and focused on the screen where the opening sequence and episode recap did an okay job of giving him an idea of what was going on in the story line. Madison for her part seemed enraptured and watched with a small smile on her face.

Rodney had to admit that for an animated show for children, it wasn't half bad. It seemed to have an actual story line and some thought put into the characters. He found himself liking the small, rudely blunt blind girl who had the ability to kick the ass of everyone who came at her.

"That's Toph! She's my favorite," Madison had said excitedly when Rodney had remarked on one particularly nifty combat move made by blind girl. And by the next disc Madison had relaxed into a half slumber with her head resting on Rodney's chest.

It was almost half past midnight when the sound of the front door opening jarred Madison from her sleep and sprinting towards her arriving parents, managing to elbow Rodney quite sharply in the ribs in her haste to greet mom and dad.

Pausing the movie and getting to his feet he watched the three Millers wander into the den. Kaleb looking completely worn out with his arm in an elaborate cast and sling. Jeannie with Madison in her arms who was clearly excited if yet still half asleep and talking to her mother, trying to detail the entire time she had spent with her uncle.

"Seems like everything is under control here," Jeannie said.

"Yes, well…" he said before trailing off and instead turning his attention to his brother in law, "how are you doing then?"

Fighting a yawn Kaleb replied, "As well as can be expected. All I want to do is crawl in bed."

"Sounds like a good plan," Jeannie said and gently pushed her husband towards the stairs.

"We didn't finish our show Uncle Mer," Madison said fighting through a yawn of her own.

"Don't worry hun, I'm sure that Uncle Mer will be happy to watch some with you tomorrow," Jeannie said smiling slyly at her brother.

"Really?" Madison asked looking at Rodney with sleepy eyes.

"Yes, really," Rodney said trying not to give away the fact the was actually interested in seeing how the story continued, "I'll have some time before I have to fly back to Colorado."

"Okay," Madison said sleepily.

"I'll take her up to bed. She should sleep in. But she'll be awake by the time we get back from the car dealership," Jeannie said.

"Yes, right. You wanted me to buy you a hybrid. I suppose it's the least I can do," Rodney replied as he used several different remotes to turn off the different pieces of electronic equipment.

"You're seriously going to buy us a car?"

"You said I had to so I am."

"Really?"

Rodney sighed heavily, "Yes. Really. Now go to bed."

"Night Mer," Jeannie said.

"Good night Jeannie," he replied.

The next morning Jeannie managed to get Rodney to not only take her to the car dealership but play chauffeur and drive her to the mall and the grocery store before returning home with a new car full of bags.

After an hour of time spent with Jeannie, a few minutes with Kaleb and another two episodes of Avatar with Madison, Rodney's IOA provided ride arrived at the Miller's house and he had to finally leave to return to Atlantis.

Hugging Jeannie and Madison good bye he climbed into the non-descript and headed towards the airport.

Much later, when he was unpacking his small bag he found the box sets for the first two seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender buried under his shirts with a note from Jeannie on the top one saying:

__

'To my constantly hungry, sarcastic, idea-man of a brother. Love Jeannie'


End file.
